The Mayor's chosen charity had the £72,000 it owed in rent to the council wiped away in the final hours of the Independent Labour reign.

Flash Musicals, of Methuen Road, Edgware, is a charity established in 1997 working to offer opportunities for children and young people from low-income or disadvantaged families to get involved in performing arts.

The Mayor of Harrow, Councillor Nana Asante (Independent Labour), selected Flash Musicals as her mayoral charity during her inauguration earlier this year.

Labour will demand a call-in committee to scrutinise the decision and the Observer understands the Conservative administration also desire a call-in to be scheduled.

Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor David Perry, said: “I am extremely proud of the fantastic work Flash Musicals carries out in the community, however, it is concerning that the former leader of the council took this decision to write off large sums of debt to the Mayor of Harrow’s chosen charity, in a decision which was taken behind closed doors.

“The council must take decisions in an open and transparent way and this decision shows a lack of respect to the voluntary and community sector in Harrow.”

The debt was wiped off as a part of the new lease, which will also see a change in the rent payable by the charity to the council. The property that Flash Musicals rent has an annual market value of £25,000, however in the 10-year lease, the first five years were set to reduce the rent to £18,500, of which the charity will pay £7,000. The remainder will be paid for by Harrow Council, offsetting the money in return for the services the charity provide to the borough.

Terry Revill, owner of Flash Musicals, responded: “To say I am amazed at Councillor Perry’s comments is an understatement.

“This is nothing new, these negotiations were happening when he was the portfolio holder for community.

“There is a lot of history to this which he has not mentioned, like the council raising the rent from £70 a year to £28,000 in one go.

“Even putting that history aside, the council has not written off large sums of money, in fact they are back paying for some of the services Flash has given them over the years. Flash has done services in the tune of £103,000 which the council has an invoice for and still needs to be paid, so to say the council has written off large sums of money is simply wrong.”

Mr Revill added: “I personally think that the voluntary and community sector will be very disappointed with this politically motivated attack on a good decision which has been in negotiation for many years.”

Councillor Thaya Idaikkadar, who lost leadership of the council on Monday last week, said: “I discussed this matter many, many months ago with the chief executive, as then leader of the Labour Group and the council as it was essential to resolve this long standing saga by providing a just solution, with the help and support from our officers.

“They had to trawl through past records stretching back nearly a decade ago when Labour’s Keith Burchell was the portfolio holder, together with other pieces of information, hence the delay by officers in preparing the report for approval, which is completely reasonable.”